Report: Five Million Dutch have a Satanic View of Israel

Yesterday, the major Dutch news site Dagelijkse Standaard published an article by Israeli anti-Semitism expert Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld in which he wrote that there are currently more people with neo-Nazi views in the Netherlands than the number of Dutch collaborators with the Nazis during the Second World War.

Gerstenfeld wrote: “At least five million Dutch have a satanic view of Israel. This can be concluded from a study undertaken by the University of Bielefeld for the German Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert Foundation in 2011. This study was ignored in the Netherlands.

"The study’s authors asked people if they believe that Israel is conducting an extermination war against the Palestinian Arabs. About 39% of the Dutch polled answered in the affirmative.

"Already in 2003 in a Euro barometer study, it was asked which countries are dangers to world peace. Israel came in second place after Iran. This was the opinion held by 59% of the Europeans. In the Netherlands, the percentage was the highest at 74%.”

Gerstenfeld added: “With such a diabolical opinion of the Jewish state, millions of Dutchmen are thus back in the Middle Ages mentally. Today, there are more Dutchmen with this insane viewpoint than the number of Nazis in the Netherlands during the Second World War.

" At present these views are largely latent, as were Dutch Nazi views before the war. Today there is actually more hostility against Jews than before the Second World War in the Netherlands. But if the atmosphere is ripe, violence can increase, as has happened in the past.”

Most talkbacks to the article supported it, but some were anti-Semitic in nature and even promoted Holocaust revisionism.

When contacted by Arutz Sheva, Gerstenfeld said, “This is just one of many disparate and worrisome developments in the Netherlands of the last years as far as Jews and Israel are concerned. There are frequent attacks on ritual slaughter (shechita) and circumcision. These are mainly aimed at Muslims, however the Jews suffer collateral damage as a result.

"Left-wing groups held an offensive Kristallnacht ceremony in which they did not mention current and widespread Muslim anti-Semitism.

"A few days ago, a higher court fined an observant Jew who didn’t carry his identity card with him on the Sabbath, even after a lower court had found him not guilty.

"In addition, another higher court overturned the judgment of a lower court which forbade a ceremony by the municipality at the local cemetery of Nazi Germany’s soldiers in the village of Vorden last year. The municipality intends to hold such a ceremony this year on May 4th which is Dutch National Memorial Day.”